sangaree?

[Madame_Mayhem]

I've recently started a new project, creating pirate themed bartending book. We try to keep as much of the drinks as historically accurate as we can. I came to halt trying research what we know as sangria, Sangaree, is original made from. Most recipes I came across were absurd.

Does anyone have a good reference to a period correct version?

[Red Sea Trade]

Found this in a quick online search. Cannot vouch for the accuracy, but it should be easy enough to check the sources cited.

"A single citation of a common predecessor was noted in a 1736 issue of the British Gentleman’s Magazine. “… a punch seller in the Strand had devised a new punch made of strong Madeira wine and called sangre.” Whether this is strictly true is unclear, but present are the wine and the red color befitting the name. Why this English punch seller would choose this evocative Spanish word as a metaphoric title makes your Doctor wonder if it was more of a found recipe than a creation.

Certainly by 1785 the strange drink, now called sangaree, was thoroughly equated with the Antilles islands and with Spain. Several dictionaries now listed the word and pointed to the West Indies as its place of residence. It had also achieved a fuller definition and one obliging it more to punch than wine. The Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, published that year, wrote, “Sangaree: Rack punch was formerly so called in bagnios.” Well, a bagnio in this sense was a brothel, and the “rack” punch referred to the arrack that was the first of five elements in classic punch: arrack, citrus fruits, spices, cane sugar and water. The arrack in the dictionary was not the anise-tinged spirit of the Middle East but the father of modern rum, Batavia Arrack from the Antilles, Java specifically. Given this definition, the sangaree was a single-serving punch!"

http://imbibemagazine.com/The-History-of-Sangaree-Cocktails/

[Mission]

Gentleman's Magazine is available on-line. You'll find that quote in the collected 1736 weeklies at the top of the left column here. (Page 551 if the link doesn't work properly.)

Of course, if you're being strict, 1736 is after the end of the golden age of piracy, so it wouldn't have been drunk under that name by pirates. The latest I've seen the end of the GAoP defined is 1732. Most scholars define it some time between 1725-1730. That quote suggests the drink was invented in 1736... On the other hand, the pirate version of punch was pretty much whatever fruit juices and alcohol you'd liberated dumped into a bowl, so even if it didn't have a proper name, Madiera wine and fruit juices would no doubt have wound up being drunk on some pirate ship at some time somewhere. (Along with just about any other combination of alcohols and fruits juices you can imagine.)

[Mission]

Here's a period accurate recipe for your book:

"The Moskito Indians will take a ripe Plantain and roast it; then take a pint and half of Water in a Calabash, and squeeze the Plantain in pieces with their Hand, mixing it with Water; then they drink it all off together: This they call Mishlaw, and it’s pleasant and sweet, and nourishing: somewhat like Lamb’s-wool (as ‘tis call’d) made with Apples and Ale: and have their whole subsistence. When they make Drink with them, they take 10 or 12 ripe Plantains and mash them well in a Trough: then they ferment and froth like Wort. In 4 Hours it is fit to drink, and then they bottle it, and drink it as they have occasion: but this will not keep above 24 or 30 Hours. Those therefore that use this Drink, brew it in this manner every Morning. When I went first to Jamaica I could relish no other drink they had there. It drinks brisk and cool, and is very pleasant. This Drink is windy, and so is the Fruit eaten raw; but boil’d or roasted it is not so. If this drink is kept above 30 Hours it grows sharp: but if then it be put out in the Sun, it will become very good Vinegar. This Fruits grows all over the West-Indies (in the proper Climates) at Guinea, and in the East-Indies." (William Dampier, Memoirs of a Buccaneer, Dampier’s New Voyage Round the World -1697-, Dover Publications, Inc., Mineola, NY, 1968, p. 216)

There are a couple topics in The Way to a Pyrates Heart forum that may interest you as well. Among them (you can just click on them to jump into the topics):

Flip!

Historically Accurate Rum

Punch

[Mission]

Oh, I forgot about the tales of the Coconut tree....

"Besides the Liquor [not referring here to the meaning of liquor as we think of it today, but as a liquid] or Water in the Fruit, there is also a sort of Wine drawn from the Tree called Toddy, which looks like Whey. It is sweet and very pleasant, but it is to be drunk within 24 Hours after it is drawn, for afterwards it grows sowre. Those that have a great many Trees, draw a Spirit from the sowre Wine, called Arack. Arack is distill'd also from Rice, and other things in the East-Indies; but none is so much esteemed for making Punch as this sort, made of Toddy, or the Sap of the Coco-nut Tree for it makes most delicate Punch; but it must have a dash of Brandy to hearten it, because this Arack is not strong enough to make good Punch of it self. This sort of Liquor is chiefly used about Goa; and therefore it has the Name of Goa Arack. The way of drawing the Toddy from the Tree, is by cutting the top of a Branch that would bear Nuts; but before it has any Fruit; and from thence the Liquor which was to feed its Fruit, distils into the hole of a Callabash [a bowl made from the rind of a fruit] that is hung upon it." (Dampier, p. 202 or 203)

“The Men have their Drinking Bouts of Palm Wine, which is the only Liquor [again, liquid] the Country [Angola] affords besides Water; they let it stand two Days after it is taken from the Tree, in which time it ferments and grows sower, and has some Spirit in it, which exhilarates them and makes them merry; they’ll set at these drinking Bouts twelve Hours together till they get drunk. I have tasted it, but found it disagreeable; but when it is first taken from the Tree it has a very pleasant Taste, and I have drank great Quantities of it without perceiving it had any other Effect than quenching my Thirst, though some Travellers affirm that it will make People drunk. This Wine, which the Natives call Malaso, is the Sap of the Palm Tree, and is taken from it thus: They make several small Holes in the upper Part of the Tree, a little below the Head where it branches out, and put in a Reed and fasten it to a Calabash, which is made almost like a Bottle, and it the Shell of a Fruit which receives the Liquor.” (The Voyages and Travels of Captain Nathaniel Uring, 1928 reprint, first published in 1726, p. 42)

[Madame_Mayhem]

Wow. Thanks everyone.

[Jas. Hook]

It sounds as if M'lady Mayhem is planning to serve quite a selection of liquid refreshment at the Tortuga Tavern.

Jas. Hook

[Madame_Mayhem]

Aye, you be right. I stocked me tavern with the finest spirits found.